Inherent Human Dignity: A Philosophical Meditation

Inherent Human Dignity explores the philosophical and existential foundations of what it means to be human.

Inherent Human Dignity is a philosophical meditation and defense of the value of being human. Glenn Hughes explores the existential foundations of these concepts in this structured and accessible study about the experience of being human.

Hughes locates human dignity within the philosophical, political, and historical horizons of human culture. Guided by Eric Voegelin and Bernard Lonergan, literary and artistic examples, key moments of our modern era, and his own scholarship on the religions of the world, Hughes unfolds and accounts for human dignity’s place in our world. He additionally utilizes key moments of our modern era to frame our understanding of human dignity, paying close attention to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was created by the United Nations following World War II. Ultimately, Hughes’s meditation is concerned both with exploring the maximally differentiated set of insights into the meaning of being human and with articulating why the discovery of the inherent equal dignity of every person-without exception-is a profound and unique achievement.

Glenn Hughes (1951-2024) was professor emeritus at St. Mary’s University. He was the inaugural holder of the St. Mary’s Chair in Catholic Philosophy. He is the author of several books including From Dickinson to Dylan: Visions of Transcendence in Modernist Literature and Transcendence and History: The Search for Ultimacy from Ancient Societies to Postmodernity.

James Greenaway is the San José-Lonergan Chair in Catholic Philosophy at St. Mary’s University. He is the author of The Differentiation of Authority: The Medieval Turn Toward Existence.